Editiones Arnamagnæanæ. Series A - 01.10.2003, Page 131
Provenance and external features
109*
27 28 29 30 31 32
ra 46 46 47 45 44 45
rb 46 46 - 44 44 45
va 46 45 49 46 44 47
vb 46 45 — 47 46 47
33 34 35 36 37 38
ra 46 47 46 50 49 51
rb 46 47 46 50 49 51
va 47 46 47 57 50 54
vb 47 46 47 50 51 56
Ff. 39, 40 form a single conjugate leaf slightly smaller than those of Quire
5. It contains Njáls saga with a gap of text between the leaves.
The seventh quire comprises ff. 41-7, a continuous stretch of Njáls saga.
Last comes a single leaf (f. 48) containing a passage of Njáls saga. All the
leaves that reproduce Njáls saga, though in the same hand as the rest of the
manuscript, are in a single column, and their handwriting is somewhat lar-
ger than that of Laxdœla and Eyrbyggja, the hand of which is in turn rather
larger than that of Óláfs saga Tryggvasonar and the Þáttr af Sneglu-Halla.
The pages, where they have not suffered much damage, present a neat'
appearance, particularly in the case of those written in two columns. The
black ink on some of the Eyrbyggja pages is still glossy, while the coloured
initial letters and chapter titles break the monotony of the closely-written
main text. This ink contrasts with that used in the earlier part of the manu-
script, ff. l-9rb line 3, which is now a reddish brown. In addition to the
large capitals beginning chapters, letters within chapters are often picked
out delicately in red; this applies especially to numerals, initials standing
for names, initials beginning pages, and sometimes to the punctuation.
Now that most of the pages have darkened, and the red, green and blue
have faded in varying degrees, the dainty appearance is not as impressive
as it once must have been and it is largely lost in photographs. But the
crudeness of most of the pictures is certainly compensated for by the beau-
ty of the calligraphy.
The hand in the fifth quire, that containing Laxdœla and Eyrbyggja, is
possibly the same as that used in the preceding and following parts of the
manuscript, though the situation falls short of certainty. The writing is
somewhat smaller in § 1 (i e up to f. 26) and, in the Njáls saga passages of